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Traditional Najdī mosques

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Geoffrey King
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Extract

With the affluence brought by oil, the cities, towns, and villages of Saudi Arabia are being transformed as they are rebuilt; the older mosques are being replaced by new ones in concrete and built in styles unknown in Najd 30 years ago. As a result, structures built in accordance with traditional designs are being gradually obliterated by modern, alien buildings. This process has virtually wiped out the older mosques on the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia and those in Najd may well vanish in the course of the next few years. This article attempts, albeit very incompletely, to catalogue some of the traditional mosques of Najd and to describe their architectural characteristics. I shall deal with these buildings within their geographical areas beginning with al-Ḥawṭca in southern central Najd and moving northwards, towards al-Qaṣīm and Sudayr.

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Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 41 , Issue 3 , October 1978 , pp. 464 - 498
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1978

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References

1 The field-research for this article was undertaken between 1972 and 1976 when I was living in al-Riyāḍ. During the first International Symposium on Studies in the History of Arabia, held in al-Riyāḍ, 23–27 April 1977,1 had the opportunity to make further observations on mosques in and around the city. The difficulties of photographing old buildings in Saudi Arabia are well known to all those who have attempted so to do: as far as mosques are concerned, the difficulty is compounded by the fact that non-Muslims are not permitted to enter. Whether this is by decree or generally observed custom, I do not know, but it operates effectively enough to make research difficult. I wish to express my thanks to Dr. A. Othamain of the Department of History, Faculty of Arts, University of al-Riyāḍ, and to Dr. Ronald Lewcock of the University of Cambridge for their advice. Dr. Othamain provided invaluable information regarding the mosques of ‘Unayza, while Dr. Lewcock kindly read and discussed my text. I emphasize, however, that the opinions expressed in this paper are entirely my own and that I take full responsibility for them, as well as for any defects.

2 Philby, H. St. J., Southern Nejd, Cairo, 1919Google Scholar, implies (p. 3) that in 1918, the towns of the area were populous, an impression which he reconfirms in The heart of Arabia, London, 1922, II, 44–5.Google Scholar Ibn Sa'ūd instructed him to keep well clear of the towns of the area on account of the extreme attachment of the local people to Islam: Philby was still a non-Muslim, albeit wearing Arab dress, when he made his expedition to the south.

3 Limestone is common in the area, but Sadleir, G. F., Diary of a journey across Arabia from El Khatif to Yambo, compiled Ryan, P., Byculla, 1866, 65Google Scholar, makes the following observation: ‘Limestone is found near Deriah, but the scarcity of fuel precludes its being brought into use for building, although a sufficiency is procured for white-washing and sometimes for plastering’.

4 Philby, , Southern Nejd, 17Google Scholar, and The heart of Arabia, II, 45Google Scholar, refers to the main mosque of Dilam in 1918 as being west of the main street and almost opposite the entrance to the fort. It had been replaced by 1975.

5 Ṣaḥana is not mentioned on the 1377/1957 Geographic map of the Northern Tuwayq quadrangle, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Map I–207B, the 1375/1956 Geologic map of the Southern Tuwayq quadrangle, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Map I–212A (both published by the U.S. Geological Survey), or the Photomap Najd area (1:100,000) (published by the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), Rajab 1393/August 1973.

6 One or more openings in the miḥrāb niche are common in Najd, and they are found in modern mosques built in the area.

7 Philby, , The heart of Arabia, I, p. 299Google Scholar, n. 1; idem, Arabian jubilee, London, 1952, 23Google Scholar; Glubb, J. B., War in the desert, London, 1960, 281, 286–7Google Scholar; Rentz, G., ‘al-Ikhwān’, Encyclopaedia of Islam, second edition.Google Scholar

8 Glubb, op. cit., refers to him as ‘Sultan Naif Ibn Humaid’: see also Rentz, art. cit.

9 Philby, , Arabian jubilee, 93.Google Scholar

10 A private communication in al-Riyād in 1973.

11 For a recent discussion of the Ikhwān settlements, see Shamekh, A. A., ‘Bedouin seden-tarization in al-Qasim region, Saudi Arabia’, Bulletin of the Faculty of Arts, University of al-Riyāḍ, IV, 1395–6/1975–1976, 21–9.Google ScholarPhilby, , The empty quarter, London, 1933Google Scholar, has shown Khin (plate 50) (possibly al-Khunn?), an Ikhwān hijra near Yabrīn, which was very similar to al-Ghaṭghaṭ in its architecture.

12 At its highest, albeit broken point, the qibla wall is 3·5 metres from the ground: around the ṣaḥn, the highest point, once again broken, is 2 metres.

13 Other mosques outside Najd have attached columns flanking the miḥrāb: notable examples are the miḥrāb of the Great Mosque of Qayrawān in modern Tunisia, of 248/862, and the miḥrāb of the Great Mosque of Córdoba in Spain, of 355/966.

14 Such adherence to old custom seems to reflect the character of the present village of al-Ghaṭghaṭ, whose whole male population has the shaven upper lip and long beard of the strictest of Reformist Najdīs. Most men have their beards dyed with ḥinnā' like the muṭawwi' (religious teachers) in the area.

15 The mosque opposite seems to be on the site of the ‘Mesjid el Qasr’ in Philby, 's ‘Plan of Rīyadh’ in The heart of Arabia, I, facing p. 70.Google Scholar

16 ibid.

17 Philby, , Arabia of the Wahhabis, London, 1928, 47–8.Google Scholar

18 Palgrave, W. G., Narrative of a year's journey through central and eastern Arabia (1862–1863), London and Cambridge, 1865Google Scholar, republished Farnborough, , 1969, I, 444.Google Scholar

19 See Lorimer, J. G., Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, ‘Omān and central Arabia, Calcutta, 1908–1915Google Scholar, for population estimates at the turn of the century. For a recent discussion, McCarthy, J., ‘Ottoman sources on Arabian population’Google Scholar, a paper delivered at the first International Symposium on Studies in the History of Arabia, al-Riyāḍ, 23–27 April 1977.

20 Palgrave, , op. cit., I, 444–5.Google Scholar

21 ibid., I, 393. For a similar covered way, this time a bridge, see K. A. C. Creswell's description of the Great Mosque of Córdoba, in A short account of early Muslim architecture, Penguin, 1958, 214.Google ScholarVidal, F. S., The oasis of al-Hasa, Dhahran, 1955, 87Google Scholar, refers to a mosque in the al-Kūt area of al-Hufūf which was reached by a covered way over the street, entered on the second floor of the palace (presumably the first floor by English reckoning). There was no need to cross the street.

22 Philby, , The heart of Arabia, I, 72.Google Scholar

23 ibid., 73–4.

24 I saw a wooden column in one of the better preserved Sa'ūdī palaces of the late eighteenth-early nineteenth century on Ṭurayf at al-Dir'iyya: this column was intact in June 1975, but by April 1977 it had fallen.

25 Sadleir, , op. cit., 75.Google Scholar

26 Personal communication, Dr. Abdulla H. Masry, Director of Antiquities, Department of Antiquities of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in June 1974.

27 Philby, , Arabia of the Wahhabis, 73.Google Scholar

28 This inscription, like that at Sudūs, is written in a stylized, but simple hand. The calligraphy in the two mosques differs in form however, and does not appear to be the work of the same hand.

29 This system is similar to that in the Friday Mosque of al-Riyāḍ which Philby saw and photographed in 1917–18, and that in the mosque of Jalājil in Sudayr (q.v.).

30 Philby, , Arabia of the Wahhabis, 89.Google Scholar

31 ibid., 93.

32 ibid., 97.

33 ibid., 115.

34 The 1377/1957 Geographic map of the Northern Tuwayq quadrangle Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Map I–207B (published by the U.S. Geological Survey) gives ‘Khufayfīyah’ as a trans literation of : however, the 1383/1963 Geologic map of the Wadi ar-Rimah quadrangle, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Map 1–206A (also published by the U.S. Geological Survey) gives ‘Al-Khufayfīyah’ as a transliteration of It is obvious that there has been a misprint in the Arabic of the map in the second case.

35 Philby, , Sa'udi Arabia, London, 1955, reprinted Beirut, 1968, 263.Google Scholar

36 ibid., 379, under ‘Mudhnib’.

37 Philby, , Arabia of the Wahhabis, 153.Google Scholar

38 ibid., 149.

39 See Doughty, C. M., Travels in Arabia Deserta, Cambridge, 1888, IIGoogle Scholar; Philby, , Arabia of the WahhabisGoogle Scholar; J. Tkatsch, entry' ‘Unaiza’, Encyclopaedia of Islam, first ed. A. Rihani extols the town, perhaps more than any other writer, and somewhat inordinately.

40 Philby, , Arabia of the Wahhabis, 175.Google Scholar Philby also published a photograph of ‘Unayza in September 1918 in Forty years in the wilderness, London, 1957, facing p. 113.Google Scholar It shows mudbrick houses and two round minarets towering over the skyline. The same photograph had been published some three decades earlier in Arabia of the Wahhabis, facing p. 253.Google Scholar

41 Doughty, , op. cit., II, 339.Google Scholar

42 ibid., II, 342.

43 This information concerning 'Unayza has been rewritten to a considerable extent following Dr. Othamain's kindness in reading my original text at the Arabian Seminar in Oxford on 8 July 1977.

44 A personal communication from Mr. Abdalla Yusuf Shibl of the University of al-Riyāḍ in June 1975.

45 ibid.

46 Dr. Othamain remembers repairs having taken place in his own lifetime. He has also informed me that the minaret of this mosque formerly housed a Qur'ān school for the children of the town.

47 A personal communication from Dr. Othamain.

48 I am preparing a discussion of Najdī doors and their incised and painted decoration.

49 Doughty, , op. cit., II, 314.Google Scholar

50 ibid., II, 315.

51 Philby, , Arabia of the Wahhabis, 198.Google Scholar

52 King, G. R. D., ‘Traditional architecture in Najd, Saudi Arabia’, Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, VII, 1977, 95.Google Scholar

53 Philby, , Arabia of the Wahhabis, 343.Google Scholar

54 ibid., 355.

55 ibid., 344.

56 It seems that plagues of cholera have reduced the population in the fairly recent past.

57 Local information of 29 May 1975.

58 For discussions of the extent of northern Najd, see Grohmann, A., ‘Neḏjd’, Encyclopaedia of IslamGoogle Scholar, first ed., and Winder, B. Bayly, Saudi Arabia in (he nineteenth century, London, 1965, 2–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

59 King, G. R. D., ‘A mosque attributed to 'Umar b. al-Khaṭṭāb in Dūmat al-Jandal in al-Jawf, Saudi Arabia’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1978, No. 2 (in press).Google Scholar

60 I have published an illustration of this secular decoration in the Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, VII, 1977, plate 3.Google Scholar

61 Margoliouth, D. S., ‘Wahhābīya’, Encyclopaedia of Islam, first edition.Google Scholar

62 Philby, , The heart of Arabia, I, 74.Google Scholar

63 ibid., I, 192.

64 See p. 492, n. 59.

65 Doughty, , op. cit., II, 347.Google Scholar

66 Palgrave, , op. cit., II, 172.Google Scholar

67 ibid., II, 151, 148.

68 ibid., II, 151–2.

69 Philby, , The heart of Arabia, II, 41.Google Scholar

70 Palgrave, , op. cit., I, 407 ff.Google Scholar

71 Philby, , The heart of Arabia, I, 63.Google Scholar Philby also refers (Arabia of the Wahhabis, 25Google Scholar) to an 'Id mosque which would accommodate 25 lines of worshippers at one time.

72 Philby, , Arabia of the Wahhabis, 65.Google Scholar